


012 Dusk

by Era_Penn



Series: 100 Faces of Tony Stark [12]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Angst, Dusk - Freeform, Gen, Hymns, I'm Sorry, Implied Character Death, Night, Ouch, at peace with dying, death on the battlefield, kind of?, prayers, times of day compared to death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 21:49:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10522590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Era_Penn/pseuds/Era_Penn
Summary: Dusk settles around him. Tony has experienced dusk before. He’d felt it closing in when he was sixteen and in college and drunk and took one too many sleeping pills. He’d felt it wrap around him tenderly with a chest full of shrapnel and a doctor digging into his chest with no anesthetic.....(May make more sense when read directly following 011, Morning)





	

Tony blinks up at the bright blue of the noon sky. It’s fading out a little around the edges. He can’t feel anything, which is odd. He would expect to feel something - he’s pretty sure most of his right abdomen is gone, along with his left leg.

It won’t be long, now.

Dusk settles around him. Tony has experienced dusk before. He’d felt it closing in when he was sixteen and in college and drunk and took one too many sleeping pills. He’d felt it wrap around him tenderly with a chest full of shrapnel and a doctor digging into his chest with no anesthetic. He’d felt its calming embrace tucking him in slowly as he dragged himself by his fingernails across his floor to the workshop for a replacement heart. It had kissed him deeply when he ducked into a rather large wormhole in New York.

It was growing duskier this time.

“Stark! Stay with me, Stark - Tony, stay awake.”

“Sorry, ‘Tasha,” Tony mumbles. “Think I’m clocking out.”

“Don’t you dare!”

“I’m so tired… I need to rest…”

“Tony Stark, if you close your eyes I’ll kill you when you wake up!” 

Steve is approaching behind Natasha at a run, panting. Tony can only barely see him through the shadows gathering as the orange sun sets in the noon sky.

“Goodnight. Thanks for the fight. It’s been a good one.”

“Don’t you dare, Stark.”

How does he even have the air to talk, Tony wonders, as he squeezes out a last few words. “Now I lay me down to sleep… I pray the Lord my soul to keep… and should I die, before I wake,” he last ragged breath is short, and the words come out barely a whisper. “Dear God, I pray, my cursed soul to take…”

He eyes drift close and Natasha’s shouts fade out into nothing, like the last decrescendo of an orchestra.

He’s seen dusk many times.

He wonders if night will be as beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone was wondering, I suspect that even though Tony is atheist (in my mind), Maria probably had him saying his prayers as a child before Tony lost that faith. That's what comes back to him in his last moments. That's why I chose to have him recite a child's prayer.


End file.
